Battle of Tours

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Battle of Tours
Part of the Islamic invasion of Gaul
Steuben - Bataille de Poitiers.png
Charles de Steuben's Bataille de Poitiers en octobre 732 depicts a triumphant Charles Martel (mounted) facing 'Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi (right) at the Battle of Tours.
Date 10 October 732[11]
Location Between Tours and Poitiers, France.[12]
Result Decisive Frankish victory, withdrawal of the Umayyad army.[13][14]

Merovingian Franks:

Umayyad Caliphate:

Commanders and leaders
Charles Martel
Odo, Duke of Aquitaine
Abd Ar-Rahman Al Ghafiqi
varying estimates 15,000–20,000, although other estimates range from 30,000 to 80,000 [15]

20,000–25,000. Other estimates also range up to 80,000, with 50,000 not an uncommon estimate.[15]

Arab sources: about 50,000 in the beginning of the campaign.
Casualties and losses
Estimated 1,500[citation needed], although sources unclear Estimated 12,000, although sources unclear. Most notably Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi.[16]

The Battle of Tours (10 October 732),[17] also called the Battle of Poitiers and, by Arab sources, Battle of the Palace of the Martyrs (Arabic: معركة بلاط الشهداء‎‎, transliterated as ma'arakat Balâṭ ash-Shuhadâ)[18][19][20] was fought in an area between the cities of Poitiers and Tours, in north-central France, near the village of Moussais-la-Bataille, about 20 kilometres (12 mi) northeast of Poitiers. The location of the battle was close to the border between the Frankish realm and then-independent Aquitaine. The battle pitted Frankish and Burgundian[21][22] forces under Austrasian Mayor of the Palace Charles Martel against an army of the Umayyad Caliphate led by 'Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, Governor-General of al-Andalus.

The Franks were victorious. 'Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi was killed, and Charles subsequently extended his authority in the south. Ninth-century chroniclers, who interpreted the outcome of the battle as divine judgment in his favour, gave Charles the nickname Martellus ("The Hammer"). Details of the battle, including its exact location and the number of combatants, cannot be determined from accounts that have survived. Notably, the Frankish troops won the battle without cavalry.[23]

Later Christian chroniclers and pre-20th century historians praised Charles Martel as the champion of Christianity, characterizing the battle as the decisive turning point in the struggle against Islam, a struggle which preserved Christianity as the religion of Europe; according to modern military historian Victor Davis Hanson, "most of the 18th and 19th century historians, like Gibbon, saw Poitiers (Tours), as a landmark battle that marked the high tide of the Muslim advance into Europe."[24] Leopold von Ranke felt that "Poitiers was the turning point of one of the most important epochs in the history of the world."[25]

There is little dispute that the battle helped lay the foundations of the Carolingian Empire and Frankish domination of Europe for the next century. Most historians agree that "the establishment of Frankish power in western Europe shaped that continent's destiny and the Battle of Tours confirmed that power."[26]


The exoticism of Saracen invaders is stressed in this detail from The Saracen Army outside Paris, by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, painted 1822-27, which actually depicts a fictional incident from Ariosto (Cassino Massimo, Rome)[27]


Most historians assume that the two armies met where the rivers Clain and Vienne join between Tours and Poitiers. The number of troops in each army is not known. The Mozarabic Chronicle of 754, a Latin contemporary source which describes the battle in greater detail than any other Latin or Arabic source, states that "the people of Austrasia [the Frankish forces], greater in number of soldiers and formidably armed, killed the king, Abd ar-Rahman",[29] which agrees with many Arab and Muslim historians. However, virtually all Western sources disagree, and estimate the Franks at 30,000, less than half the Muslim force.[30]

Some modern historians, using estimates of what the land was able to support, and what Martel could have raised from his realm and supported during the campaign, believe the total Muslim force, counting the outlying raiding parties, which rejoined the main body before Tours, outnumbered the Franks. Drawing on non-contemporary Muslim sources, Creasy describes the Umayyad forces as 80,000 strong or more. Writing in 1999, Paul K. Davis estimates the Umayyad forces at 80,000 and the Franks at about 30,000,[30] while noting that modern historians have estimated the strength of the Umayyad army at Tours at between 20–80,000.[31] However, Edward J. Schoenfeld, (rejecting the older figures of 60–400,000 Umayyad and 75,000 Franks), contends that "estimates that the Umayyads had over fifty thousand troops (and the Franks even more) are logistically impossible."[23] Similarly, historian Victor Davis Hanson believes both armies were roughly the same size, about 30,000 men.[32]

Modern historians may be more accurate than the medieval sources as the modern figures are based on estimates of the logistical ability of the countryside to support these numbers of men and animals. Both Davis and Hanson point out that both armies had to live off the countryside, neither having a commissary system sufficient to provide supplies for a campaign. Other sources give the following estimates: "Gore places the Frankish army at 15,000 - 20,000, although other estimates range from 30,000 to 80,000. In spite of wildly varying estimates of the Saracen force, he places that army as around 20,000 - 25,000. Other estimates also range up to 80,000, with 50,000 not an uncommon estimate." [15]


The Moors

The invasion of Hispania, and then Gaul, was led by the Umayyad Dynasty (Arabic: بنو أمية banū umayya / الأمويون al-umawiyyūn‎‎ also "Umawi"), the first dynasty of caliphs of the Islamic empire after the reign of the Four Rightly Guided Caliphs (Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali) ended. The Umayyad Caliphate, at the time of the Battle of Tours, was perhaps the world's foremost military power. Great expansion of the Caliphate occurred under the reign of the Umayyads. Muslim armies pushed east across Persia and west across North Africa through the late 7th century.[35]

In 711-18, Tariq ibn-Ziyad led forces across the Strait of Gibraltar to conquer the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania. The Muslim empire under the Umayyads was now a vast domain that ruled a diverse array of peoples. It had destroyed what were the two former foremost military powers, the Sassanid Empire, which it absorbed completely, and the greater part of the Byzantine Empire, including Syria, Armenia and North Africa, although Leo the Isaurian stemmed the tide when he defeated the Umayyads at the Battle of Akroinon (739), their final campaign in Anatolia.[35]

The Franks

The Frankish realm under Charles Martel was the foremost military power of Western Europe. During most of his tenure in office as commander-in-chief of the Franks, it consisted of north and eastern France (Austrasia, Neustria and Burgundy), most of Western Germany, and the Low Countries (Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands). The Frankish realm had begun to progress towards becoming the first real imperial power in Western Europe since the fall of Rome. However, it continued to struggle against external forces such as the Saxons, Frisians, and other opponents such as the Basque-Aquitanians led by Odo the Great (Old French: Eudes), Duke over Aquitaine and Vasconia.

Muslim conquests from Hispania

Battle of Tours is located in France
Modern-day French borders. Septimania runs along the Mediterranean (southeast) coast from the Spanish border, and Aquitaine is along the Atlantic (west) coast running north from Spain.


The Umayyad campaign into Aquitaine suffered a temporary setback at the Battle of Toulouse (721). Duke Odo of Aquitaine broke the siege of Toulouse, taking Al-Samh ibn Malik's forces by surprise. Al-Samh ibn Malik was mortally wounded. This defeat did not stop incursions into old Roman Gaul, as Moorish forces, soundly based in Narbonne and easily resupplied by sea, struck eastwards in the 720s, penetrating as far as Autun in Burgundy in 725.[36]

Threatened by both the Umayyads in the south and by the Franks in the north, in 730 Odo allied himself with the Berber commander Uthman ibn Naissa, called "Munuza" by the Franks, the deputy governor of what would later become Catalonia. To seal the alliance, Uthman was given Odo's daughter Lampagie in marriage, and Moorish raids across the Pyrenees, Odo's southern border, ceased.[36] However, the next year, the Berber leader killed the bishop of Urgell Nambaudus and detached from his Arabs masters in Cordova. Abdul Raḥman in turn sent an expedition to crush his revolt, and next directed his attention against Uthman's ally Odo.[37]

The Aquitanian duke Odo collected his army at Bordeaux, but was defeated, and Bordeaux plundered. During the following Battle of the River Garonne, the Mozarabic Chronicle of 754[38] commented that "God alone knows the number of the slain".[39] The Mozarabic Chronicle of 754 continues, saying they "pierced through the mountains, trampled over rough and level ground, plundered far into the country of the Franks, and smote all with the sword, insomuch that when Eudo came to battle with them at the River Garonne, he fled."

Odo's appeal to the Franks

Odo, who despite the heavy losses was reorganizing his troops, gave the Frankish leader notice of the impending danger knocking on the heartland of his realm, and appealed to the Franks for assistance, which Charles Martel only granted after Odo agreed to submit to Frankish authority.

It appears that the Umayyads were not aware of the true strength of the Franks. The Umayyad forces were not particularly concerned about any of the Germanic tribes, including the Franks, and the Arab chronicles of that age show that awareness of the Franks as a growing military power only came after the Battle of Tours.

Further, the Umayyads appear not to have scouted northward for potential foes, for if they had, they surely would have noted Charles Martel as a force to be reckoned with in his own account, because of his growing domination of much of Europe from 717: this might have alerted the Umayyads that a real power led by a gifted general was rising from the ashes of the Western Roman Empire.

Umayyad advance towards the Loire

In 732, the Umayyad advance force was proceeding north towards the River Loire having outpaced their supply train and a large part of their army. Essentially, having easily destroyed all resistance in that part of Gaul, the invading army had split off into several raiding parties, while the main body advanced more slowly.


A military explanation for why Odo was defeated so easily at Bordeaux and at the Garonne having won 11 years earlier at the Battle of Toulouse is simple. At Toulouse, Odo managed a basic surprise attack against an overconfident and unprepared foe, all of whose defensive works were aimed inward, while he attacked from the outside. The Umayyad forces were mostly infantry, and what cavalry they had never got a chance to mobilize and meet him in open battle. As Herman of Carinthia wrote in one of his translations of a history of al-Andalus, Odo managed a highly successful encircling envelopment which took the attackers totally by surprise—and the result was a chaotic slaughter of the Muslim forces.

At Bordeaux, and again at the Garonne, the Umayyad forces were cavalry, not infantry, and were not taken by surprise, and given a chance to mass for battle, which led to the devastation of Odo's army, almost all of whom were killed with minimal losses to the Muslims. Odo's forces, like other European troops of that era, lacked stirrups, and therefore had no heavy cavalry. Virtually all of their troops were infantry. The Umayyad heavy cavalry broke the Frankish infantry in their first charge, and then slaughtered them at will as they broke and ran.


Battle (October 732)

Preparations and maneuver

From all accounts, the invading forces were caught entirely off guard to find a large force, well disposed and prepared for battle, with high ground, directly opposing their attack on Tours. Charles had achieved the total surprise he hoped for. He then chose to begin the battle in a defensive, phalanx-like formation.[citation needed] According to the Arabian sources, the Franks drew up in a large square, with hills and trees to their front to break up the Muslims' cavalry charges.

For seven days, the two armies faced off with minor skirmishes. The Umayyads waited for their full strength to arrive, which it did, but they were still uneasy. 'Abd-al-Raḥmân, despite being a proven commander, had allowed Charles to concentrate his forces and pick the field of battle. Furthermore, it was impossible for the Umayyads to judge the size of Martel's army, since Charles had used the trees and forest to screen his true numbers. Thus, 'Abd-al-Raḥmân recalled all his troops, which did give him an even larger army—but it also gave Charles time for more of his veteran infantry to arrive from outposts of the Kingdom.

These infantry were all the hope for victory he had. Seasoned and battle-hardened, most of them had fought with him for years, some as far back as 717. Furthermore, he had levies of militia, but these were virtually useless except for gathering food and harassing the Muslims. Unlike his infantry, who were hardened campaigners, experienced and disciplined, the militia were neither; and Charles had no illusion about their ability to withstand a cavalry charge.[citation needed] While many historians through the centuries have believed that the Franks were outnumbered at the onset of battle by at least two to one, another source, the Mozarabic Chronicle of 754, providing the best information on the period and the only text almost contemporary to the events, points to the contrary.[41]

Charles gambled everything that 'Abd-al-Raḥmân would in the end feel compelled to give battle, and to go on and loot Tours. Neither wanted to attack, but Abd-al-Raḥmân felt in the end obliged to sack Tours, which meant he had to go through the Frankish army on the hill in front of him. Charles's decision to wait in the end proved crucial, as it forced the Umayyads to rush uphill and through woods, negating to a large degree the lethality of a cavalry charge.

Charles had been preparing for this confrontation since the Battle of Toulouse a decade earlier.[citation needed] He was well aware that if he failed, no other Christian army remained to defend Western Christianity.[citation needed] But Gibbon believes, as do most pre-modern and modern historians, that Charles had made the best of a bad situation. Though allegedly outnumbered and without any heavy cavalry, Charles had tough, battle-hardened infantrymen who believed in him implicitly. Moreover, as Davis points out, these infantrymen were heavily armed, each man carrying up to perhaps 75 pounds (34 kg) of armour into battle.

Formed into a phalanx formation, they were able to withstand a cavalry charge better than might be expected, especially as Charles had been able to secure the high ground—with trees before him further to confound any cavalry charges. Charles also had the element of surprise, in addition to choosing the battlefield. That element of surprise extended to the fact that his opponents were totally unaware of how good his forces were; Martel had trained them for a decade. And while he was well aware of the Caliphate's strengths and weaknesses, they knew next to nothing about the Franks.

The Franks were dressed for the cold and had the terrain advantage. The Arabs were not as prepared for the intense cold of the oncoming northern European winter, despite having tents, which the Franks did not, but they did not want to attack an army that may have been numerically superior. The Umayyads were waiting for the Franks to come out into the open, while the Franks, formed up in a thick defensive formation, waited for them to charge uphill. It was a waiting game Charles won: the battle began on the seventh day, as 'Abd-al-Raḥmân did not want to wait any longer with winter approaching.


File:Young Folks' History of Rome illus442.png
Western knight fighting against an Arabian horseman. (Illustration from the 19th century)


In one of the few instances where medieval infantry stood up against cavalry charges,[citation needed] the disciplined Frankish soldiers withstood the assaults, though according to Arab sources, the Arab cavalry several times broke into the interior of the Frankish square. "The Muslim horsemen dashed fierce and frequent forward against the battalions of the Franks, who resisted manfully, and many fell dead on either side."[42]

Despite this, the Franks did not break. It appears that the years of year-round training that Charles had bought with Church funds, paid off. His hard-trained soldiery accomplished what was not thought possible at that time: infantry withstood the Umayyad heavy cavalry. Paul Davis says the core of Charles's army was a professional infantry which was both highly disciplined and well motivated, "having campaigned with him all over Europe", buttressed by levies that Charles basically used to raid and disrupt his enemy, and gather food for his infantry.[43] The Mozarabic Chronicle of 754 says:


The battle turns

Umayyad troops who had broken into the square had tried to kill Charles, but his liege men surrounded him and would not be broken. The battle was still in flux when—Frankish histories claim—a rumour went through the Umayyad army that Frankish scouts threatened the booty that they had taken from Bordeaux. Some of the Umayyad troops at once broke off the battle and returned to camp to secure their loot. According to Muslim accounts of the battle, in the midst of the fighting on the second day (Frankish accounts have the battle lasting one day only), scouts from the Franks sent by Charles began to raid the camp and supply train (including slaves and other plunder).[citation needed]


Both Western and Muslim histories agree that while trying to stop the retreat, 'Abd-al-Raḥmân became surrounded, which led to his death, and the Umayyad troops then withdrew altogether to their camp. "All the host fled before the enemy", candidly wrote one Arabic source, "and many died in the flight". The Franks resumed their phalanx, and rested in place through the night, believing the battle would resume at dawn the following morning.[citation needed]

Following day



Contemporary accounts

The Mozarabic Chronicle of 754 "describes the battle in greater detail than any other Latin or Arabic source".[44] It says of the encounter that,


— Wolf (trans)



— Fouracre

This source details further that "he (Charles Martel) came down upon them like a great man of battle". It goes on to say Charles "scattered them like the stubble".

The Latin word used for "warrior", belligerator, "is from the Book of Maccabees, chapters 15 and 16, which describe huge battles.[45]

It is thought that Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (Chapter XXIII) includes a reference to the Battle of Poitiers: "...a dreadful plague of Saracens ravaged France with miserable slaughter, but they not long after in that country received the punishment due to their wickedness".[46]

Strategic analysis

Gibbon makes the point that 'Abd-al-Raḥmân did not move at once against Charles Martel, and was surprised by him at Tours as Charles had marched over the mountains avoiding the roads to surprise the Muslim invaders. Thus, Charles selected the time and place they would collide.

'Abd-al-Raḥmân was a good general, but failed to do two things he should have done before the battle:

  • He failed to scout the movements of the Frankish army.

Having done either, he would have curtailed his light horse ravaging throughout lower Gaul, and marched at once with his full power against the Franks. This strategy would have nullified every advantage Charles had at Tours:

  • They would have bypassed weaker opponents such as Odo, whom they could have picked off at will later, while moving at once to force battle with the real power in Europe, and at least partially picked the battlefield.


According to Creasy, the Muslims' best strategic choice would have been to simply decline battle, depart with their loot, garrisoning the captured towns in southern Gaul, and return when they could force Charles to a battleground more to their liking, one that maximized the huge advantage they had in their mailed and armored horsemen. It might have been different, however, had the Muslim forces remained under control. Both western and Muslim histories agree the battle was hard fought, and that the Umayyad heavy cavalry had broken into the square, but agreed that the Franks were in formation still strongly resisting.



Both Hallam and Watson argue that had Charles failed, there was no remaining force to protect Western Europe. Hallam perhaps said it best: "It may justly be reckoned among those few battles of which a contrary event would have essentially varied the drama of the world in all its subsequent scenes: with Marathon, Arbela, the Metaurus, Châlons and Leipzig."[48]



Umayyad retreat and second invasion

The Umayyad army retreated south over the Pyrenees. Charles continued to drive the Umayyad forces from France in subsequent years. After the death (c. 735) of Odo, who had reluctantly acknowledged Charles' suzerainty in 719, Charles wished to unite Odo's Duchy to himself, and went there to elicit the proper homage of the Aquitainians. But the nobility proclaimed Hunold, Odo's son, as the Duke, and Charles recognized his legitimacy when the Umayyads entered Provence as part of an alliance with Duke Maurontus the next year.[49]

Hunold, who originally resisted acknowledging Charles as overlord, soon had little choice. He acknowledged Charles as his overlord, albeit not for long, and Charles confirmed his Duchy.

Umayyad invasion (735–39)


Uqba b. Al-Hajjaj's forces remained in French territory for about four years,[specify] carrying raids to Lyons, Burgundy, and Piedmont. Charles Martel invaded Septimania in two campaigns in 736 and 739, but was forced back again to Frankish territory under his control. Alessandro Santosuosso strongly argues that the second (Umayyad) expedition was probably more dangerous than the first. The second expedition's failure put an end to any serious Muslim expedition across the Pyrenees, although raids continued. Plans for further large-scale attempts were hindered by internal turmoil in the Umayyad lands which often made enemies out of their own kind.[50]

Advance to Narbonne


The army attempting to relieve Narbonne met Charles in open battle at the Battle of the River Berre and was destroyed. However, Charles failed in his attempt to take Narbonne by siege in 737, when the city was jointly defended by its Muslim Arab and Berber, and its Christian Visigothic citizens.

Carolingian dynasty

Reluctant to tie down his army for a siege that could last years, and believing he could not afford the losses of an all-out frontal assault such as he had used at Arles, Charles was content to isolate the few remaining invaders in Narbonne and Septimania. The threat of invasion was diminished after the Umayyad defeat at Narbonne, and the unified Caliphate would collapse into civil war in 750 at the Battle of the Zab.

It was left to Charles' son, Pippin the Short, to force Narbonne's surrender in 759, thus bringing Narbonne into the Frankish domains. The Umayyad dynasty was expelled, driven back to Al-Andalus where Abd ar-Rahman I established an emirate in Córdoba in opposition to the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad.



Prior to Tours, stirrups may have been unknown in the west. Lynn White Jr., in his book "Medieval Technology and Social Change", argues the adoption of the stirrup for cavalry was the direct cause for the development of feudalism in the Frankish realm by Charles Martel and his heirs.[52]

Historical and macrohistorical views

The historical views of this battle fall into three great phases, both in the East and especially in the West. Western historians, beginning with the Mozarabic Chronicle of 754, stressed the macrohistorical impact of the battle, as did the Continuations of Fredegar. This became a claim that Charles had saved Christianity, as Gibbon and his generation of historians agreed that the Battle of Tours was unquestionably decisive in world history.

Modern historians have essentially fallen into two camps on the issue. The first camp essentially agrees with Gibbon, and the other argues that the Battle has been massively overstated—turned from a raid in force to an invasion, and from a mere annoyance to the Caliph to a shattering defeat that helped end the Islamic Expansion Era. It is essential however, to note that within the first group, those who agree the Battle was of macrohistorical importance, there are a number of historians who take a more moderate and nuanced view of the significance of the battle, in contrast to the more dramatic and rhetorical approach of Gibbon. The best example of this school is William E. Watson, who does believe the battle has such importance, as will be discussed below, but analyzes it militarily, culturally and politically, rather than seeing it as a classic "Muslim versus Christian" confrontation.

In the East, Arab histories followed a similar path. First, the battle was regarded as a disastrous defeat; then, it largely faded from Arab histories, leading to a modern dispute which regards it as either a secondary loss to the great defeat of the Second Siege of Constantinople, where the Bulgarian Emperor Tervel played a crucial role, or a part of a series of great macrohistorical defeats which together brought about the fall of the first Caliphate. With the Byzantines and Bulgarians together with the Franks both successfully blocking further expansion, internal social troubles came to a head, starting with the Great Berber Revolt of 740, and ending with the Battle of the Zab, and the destruction of the Umayyad Caliphate.

In Western history

The first wave of real "modern" historians, especially scholars on Rome and the medieval period, such as Edward Gibbon, contended that had Charles fallen, the Umayyad Caliphate would have easily conquered a divided Europe. Gibbon famously observed:


Nor was Gibbon alone in lavishing praise on Charles as the savior of Christendom and western civilization. H.G. Wells in his A Short History of the World said in Chapter XLV "The Development of Latin Christendom": "The Moslim when they crossed the Pyrenees in 720 found this Frankish kingdom under the practical rule of Charles Martel, the Mayor of the Palace of a degenerate descendant of Clovis, and experienced the decisive defeat of Poitiers (732) at his hands. This Charles Martel was practically overlord of Europe north of the Alps from the Pyrenees to Hungary. He ruled over a multitude of subordinate lords speaking French-Latin, and High and Low German languages."[citation needed]


German historians were especially ardent in their praise of Charles Martel; Schlegel speaks of this "mighty victory",[55] and tells how "the arm of Charles Martel saved and delivered the Christian nations of the West from the deadly grasp of all-destroying Islam." Creasy quotes Leopold von Ranke's opinion that this period was "one of the most important epochs in the history of the world, the commencement of the eighth century, when on the one side Mohammedanism threatened to overspread Italy and Gaul, and on the other the ancient idolatry of Saxony and Friesland once more forced its way across the Rhine. In this peril of Christian institutions, a youthful prince of Germanic race, Karl Martell, arose as their champion, maintained them with all the energy which the necessity for self-defence calls forth, and finally extended them into new regions."[55]

The German military historian Hans Delbrück said of this battle "there was no more important battle in the history of the world." (The Barbarian Invasions, page 441.) Had Charles Martel failed, Henry Hallam argued, there would have been no Charlemagne, no Holy Roman Empire or Papal States; all these depended upon Charles's containment of Islam from expanding into Europe while the Caliphate was unified and able to mount such a conquest. Another great mid era historian, Thomas Arnold, ranked the victory of Charles Martel even higher than the victory of Arminius in its impact on all of modern history: "Charles Martel's victory at Tours was among those signal deliverances which have affected for centuries the happiness of mankind."[56] Louis Gustave and Charles Strauss in Moslem and Frank; or, Charles Martel and the rescue of Europe said "The victory gained was decisive and final, The torrent of Arab conquest was rolled back and Europe was rescued from the threatened yoke of the Saracens." (page 122)


John Bagnell Bury, writing at the beginning of the 20th century, said "The Battle of Tours... has often been represented as an event of the first magnitude for the world's history, because after this, the penetration of Islam into Europe was finally brought to a standstill."[57]

Modern Western historians are clearly divided on the importance of the battle, and where it should rank in military history; see below.

Adolf Hitler on the Battle of Tours

Albert Speer, Hitler's Armaments Minister, described how Hitler expressed approval of Islam, saying that Hitler had been particularly impressed by what he had heard from a delegation of Arabs. When the Muslims had tried to penetrate Central Europe in the 8th century, they had been driven back at the Battle of Tours; if they had won that battle, the world would have become Muslim. Theirs was a religion, Hitler said, that believed in spreading the faith by the sword and subjugating all nations to that faith. Hitler considered that Islam was perfectly suited to the "Germanic" temperament and would have been more compatible to the Germans than Christianity.[58]

In Muslim history

Eastern historians, like their Western counterparts, have not always agreed on the importance of the battle. According to Bernard Lewis, "The Arab historians, if they mention this engagement [the Battle of Tours] at all, present it as a minor skirmish,"[59] and Gustave von Grunebaum writes: "This setback may have been important from the European point of view, but for Muslims at the time, who saw no master plan imperilled thereby, it had no further significance."[60] Contemporary Arab and Muslim historians and chroniclers were much more interested in the second Umayyad siege of Constantinople in 718, which ended in a disastrous defeat.


Thirteenth-century Moroccan author Ibn Idhari al-Marrakushi, mentioned the battle in his history of the Maghrib, "al-Bayan al-Mughrib fi Akhbar al-Maghrib." According to Ibn Idhari, "Abd ar-Rahman and many of his men found martyrdom on the balat ash-Shuhada'i ("the path of the martyrs)." Antonio Santosuosso points that "they (the Muslims) called the battle's location, the road between Poitiers and Tours, "the pavement of Martyrs"."[50] However, as Henry Coppée pointed out, "The same name was given to the battle of Toulouse and is applied to many other fields on which the Moslemah were defeated: they were always martyrs for the faith." (Coppée 2002, p. 13)

Khalid Yahya Blankinship argued that the military defeat at Tours was one of the failures that contributed to the decline of the Umayyad caliphate: "Stretching from Morocco to China, the Umayyad caliphate based its expansion and success on the doctrine of jihad—armed struggle to claim the whole earth for God's rule, a struggle that had brought much material success for a century but suddenly ground to a halt followed by the collapse of the ruling Umayyad dynasty in 750 AD. The End of the Jihad State demonstrates for the first time that the cause of this collapse came not just from internal conflict, as has been claimed, but from a number of external and concurrent factors that exceeded the caliphate's capacity to respond. These external factors began with crushing military defeats at Byzantium, Toulouse and Tours, which led to the Great Berber Revolt of 740 in Iberia and Northern Africa."

Current historical debate on macrohistorical impact of Battle of Tours

Some modern historians argue that the Battle of Tours was of no great historical significance while others continue to contend that Charles Martel's victory was important in European or even world history.

Supporting the significance of Tours as a world-altering event


There is clearly some justification for ranking Tours-Poitiers among the most significant events in Frankish history when one considers the result of the battle in light of the remarkable record of the successful establishment by Muslims of Islamic political and cultural dominance along the entire eastern and southern rim of the former Christian, Roman world. The rapid Muslim conquest of Palestine, Syria, Egypt and the North African coast all the way to Morocco in the seventh century resulted in the permanent imposition by force of Islamic culture onto a previously Christian and largely non-Arab base. The Visigothic kingdom fell to Muslim conquerors in a single battle on the Rio Barbate in 711, and the Hispanic Christian population took seven long centuries to regain control of the Iberian peninsula. The Reconquista, of course, was completed in 1492, only months before Columbus received official backing for his fateful voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. Had Charles Martel suffered at Tours-Poitiers the fate of King Roderic at the Rio Barbate, it is doubtful that a "do-nothing" sovereign of the Merovingian realm could have later succeeded where his talented major domus had failed. Indeed, as Charles was the progenitor of the Carolingian line of Frankish rulers and grandfather of Charlemagne, one can even say with a degree of certainty that the subsequent history of the West would have proceeded along vastly different currents had 'Abd ar-Rahman been victorious at Tours-Poitiers in 732.[61]

Watson adds, "After examining the motives for the Muslim drive north of the Pyrenees, one can attach a macrohistorical significance to the encounter between the Franks and Andalusi Muslims at Tours-Poitiers, especially when one considers the attention paid to the Franks in Arabic literature and the successful expansion of Muslims elsewhere in the medieval period."

Victorian writer John Henry Haaren says in Famous Men of the Middle Ages, "The battle of Tours, or Poitiers, as it should be called, is regarded as one of the decisive battles of the world. It decided that Christians, and not Moslems, should be the ruling power in Europe."[62] Bernard Grun delivers this assessment in his "Timetables of History", reissued in 2004: "In 732 Charles Martel's victory over the Arabs at the Battle of Tours stems the tide of their westward advance."[63]

Historian and humanist Michael Grant lists the battle of Tours in the macrohistorical dates of the Roman era. Historian Norman Cantor who specialized in the medieval period, teaching and writing at Columbia and New York University, says in 1993: "It may be true that the Arabs had now fully extended their resources and they would not have conquered France, but their defeat (at Tours) in 732 put a stop to their advance to the north."[64]

Military historian Robert W. Martin considers Tours "one of the most decisive battles in all of history."[65] Additionally, historian Hugh Kennedy says "it was clearly significant in establishing the power of Charles Martel and the Carolingians in France, but it also had profound consequences in Muslim Spain. It signaled the end of the ghanima (booty) economy."[66]

Military Historian Paul Davis argued in 1999, "had the Muslims been victorious at Tours, it is difficult to suppose what population in Europe could have organized to resist them."[67] Likewise, George Bruce in his update of Harbottle's classic military history Dictionary of Battles maintains that "Charles Martel defeated the Moslem army effectively ending Moslem attempts to conquer western Europe."[68]

History professor Antonio Santosuosso puts forth an opinion on Charles, Tours, and the subsequent campaigns against Rahman's son in 736–737, presenting that these later defeats of invading Muslim armies were at least as important as Tours in their defense of Western Christendom and the preservation of Western monasticism, the monasteries of which were the centers of learning which ultimately led Europe out of her Middle Ages. He also makes an argument, after studying the Arab histories of the period, that these were clearly armies of invasion, sent by the Caliph not just to avenge Tours, but to begin the end of Christian Europe and bring it into the Caliphate.

Professor of religion Huston Smith says in The World's Religions: Our Great Wisdom Traditions "But for their defeat by Charles Martel in the Battle of Tours in 733, the entire Western world might today be Muslim." Historian Robert Payne on page 142 in "The History of Islam" said "The more powerful Muslims and the spread of Islam were knocking on Europe's door. And the spread of Islam was stopped along the road between the towns of Tours and Poitiers, France, with just its head in Europe."

Victor Davis Hanson has commented that "Recent scholars have suggested Poitiers, so poorly recorded in contemporary sources, was a mere raid and thus a construct of western mythmaking or that a Muslim victory might have been preferable to continued Frankish dominance. What is clear is that Poitiers marked a general continuance of the successful defense of Europe, (from the Muslims). Flush from the victory at Tours, Charles Martel went on to clear southern France from Islamic attackers for decades, unify the warring kingdoms into the foundations of the Carolingian Empire, and ensure ready and reliable troops from local estates."[69]

Paul Davis, another modern historian, says "whether Charles Martel saved Europe for Christianity is a matter of some debate. What is sure, however, is that his victory ensured that the Franks would dominate Gaul for more than a century."[70] Davis writes, "Moslem defeat ended the Moslems' threat to western Europe, and Frankish victory established the Franks as the dominant population in western Europe, establishing the dynasty that led to Charlemagne."[71]

Objecting to the significance of Tours as a world-altering event

Other historians disagree with this assessment. Alessandro Barbero writes, "Today, historians tend to play down the significance of the battle of Poitiers, pointing out that the purpose of the Muslim force defeated by Charles Martel was not to conquer the Frankish kingdom, but simply to pillage the wealthy monastery of St-Martin of Tours".[72] Similarly, Tomaž Mastnak writes:

Modern historians have constructed a myth presenting this victory as having saved Christian Europe from the Muslims. Edward Gibbon, for example, called Charles Martel the savior of Christendom and the battle near Poitiers an encounter that changed the history of the world. ... This myth has survived well into our own times. ... Contemporaries of the battle, however, did not overstate its significance. The continuators of Fredegar's chronicle, who probably wrote in the mid-eighth century, pictured the battle as just one of many military encounters between Christians and Saracens—moreover, as only one in a series of wars fought by Frankish princes for booty and territory. ... One of Fredegar's continuators presented the battle of Poitiers as what it really was: an episode in the struggle between Christian princes as the Carolingians strove to bring Aquitaine under their rule.[73]

The historian Philip Hitti believes that "In reality nothing was decided on the battlefield of Tours. The Moslem wave, already a thousand miles from its starting point in Gibraltar—to say nothing about its base in al-Qayrawan—had already spent itself and reached a natural limit."[74]

The view that the battle has no great significance is perhaps best summarized by [[{{{1}}}]][] says in Europe and Islam: "Although prudence needs to be exercised in minimizing or 'demythologizing' the significance of the event, it is no longer thought by anyone to have been crucial. The 'myth' of that particular military engagement survives today as a media cliché, than which nothing is harder to eradicate. It is well known how the propaganda put about by the Franks and the papacy glorified the victory that took place on the road between Tours and Poitiers ..."[75]

In their introduction to The Reader's Companion to Military History Robert Cowley and Geoffrey Parker summarise this side of the modern view of the Battle of Tours by saying "The study of military history has undergone drastic changes in recent years. The old drums-and-bugles approach will no longer do. Factors such as economics, logistics, intelligence, and technology receive the attention once accorded solely to battles and campaigns and casualty counts. Words like "strategy" and "operations" have acquired meanings that might not have been recognizable a generation ago. Changing attitudes and new research have altered our views of what once seemed to matter most. For example, several of the battles that Edward Shepherd Creasy listed in his famous 1851 book The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World rate hardly a mention here, and the confrontation between Muslims and Christians at Poitiers-Tours in 732, once considered a watershed event, has been downgraded to a raid in force."[76]

See also


  1. 1.0 1.1 "The state of Islam in Al Andalus", written by Mohammed Abdullah Annan, ((The first era-The first section, from the conquest until the beginning of the era of Al-Nasir)). Fourth edition, published by Khanji library in Cairo. Page 96
  2. Dawn of Al-Andalus, by DR. Hussain Mones, a study of the history of Muslim Spain from the Arab conquest in 711 AD. till the rise of the Umayyad Emirate of Cordova in 756 AD., published in Dar Al-Manahel and Al-Asr Al-Hadith, Beirut, Lebanon."First Edition". Page 330
  3. Balat Al-Shuhada, led by Abd Ar-Rahman Al-Ghafiqi, by Dr. Shawqi Abu Khalil, published in Dar Al-Fekr, Damascus, Syria, and Dar Al-Fekr Al-Mo-aser, Beirut, Lebanon. "Third Edition". ISBN 1-57547-503-0. Page 34
  4. Balat Al-Shuhada battle, in Islamic and European history, by DR. Abd Al-Fattah Muqallid Al-Ghunaymi, published in Alam Alkotob, Cairo, Egypt. "First Edition". ISBN 977-232-081-9. Page 128
  6. Balat Al-Shuhada battle, in Islamic and European history, by Dr. Abd Al-Fattah Muqallid Al-Ghunaymi, published in Alam Alkotob, Cairo, Egypt. "First Edition". ISBN 977-232-081-9. Page:128
  8. The Andalusian History, from the Islamic conquest till the fall of Granada 92–897 A.H. (711–1492 AD.), by Professor AbdurRahman Ali El-Hajji, a professor of the Islamic history at Baghdad University, published in Dar Al-Qalam, in Damascus, and in Beirut. "Second Edition". Page 202
  9. Primary Islamic sources used the name "Franks" to refer to all the nations of Europe except Goths and Romans
  15. 15.0 15.1 15.2 Tom oberhofer. "battle of poitiers 729 battle of Moussais, battle of Tours, Charles Martel Eudes of Aquitaine, Abd. er-Rahman, medieval warfare". Retrieved 2012-10-04.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
  16. Hanson, 2001, p. 141.
  17. Oman, 1960, p. 167, gives the traditional date of October 10, 732. Lynn White, Jr., Medieval Technology and Social Change, 1962, citing M. Baudot, 1955, goes with October 17, 733. Roger Collins, The Arab Conquest of Spain, 1989, concludes "late (October?) 733" based on the "likely" appointment date of the successor of Abdul Rahman, who was killed in the battle. See White, p. 3, note 3, and Collins, pp. 90-91.
  18. Arabic language dictionaries: Al-Ghani Dictionary, Al-Ra-ed Dictionary,and Al-Waseit Dictionary mentions that the meaning of "Balat" is the Palace of a king
  19. the origin of the Arabic word Balat is the same of the Latin word Palatium, and the English word Palace
  20. Balat AL-Shuhada, led by Abd Ar-Rahman Al-Ghafiqi, by Dr. Shawqi Abu Khalil, published in Dar Al-Fekr, Damascus, Syria, and Dar Al-Fekr Al-Mo-aser, Beirut, Lebanon. "Third Edition". ISBN 1-57547-503-0. Page: 32 : the word "Balat" means the Palace of a king
  21. Bachrach, 2001, p. 276.
  22. Fouracre, 2002, p. 87 citing the Vita Eucherii, ed. W. Levison, Monumenta Germaniæ Historica, Scriptores Rerum Merovingicarum VII, pp. 46–53, ch. 8, pp. 49–50; Gesta Episcoporum Autissiodorensium, extracts ed. G. Waitz, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores XIII, pp. 394–400, ch. 27, p. 394.
  23. 23.0 23.1 Schoenfeld, 2001, p. 366.
  24. Hanson, 2001, p. 166.
  25. Ranke, Leopold von. "History of the Reformation", vol. 1, 5
  26. Davis, 1999, p. 106.
  27. The patriotic and religious fresco project and its cultural implications are discussed by Albert Boime, A Social History of Modern Art 2004, pp 62ff.
  28. "Battle of Tours (European history)". Britannica Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2012-10-04.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
  29. Wolf, 2000, p. 145
  30. 30.0 30.1 Davis, Paul K. "100 Decisive Battles: From Ancient Times to the Present"
  31. Davis, p. 105.
  32. Hanson, Victor Davis. "Culture and Carnage: Landmark Battles in the Rise of Western Power"
  33. Fouracre, 2000, p. 85 citing U. Nonn, 'Das Bild Karl Martells in Mittelalterliche Quellen', in Jarnut, Nonn and Richeter (eds), Karl Martel in Seiner Zeit, pp. 9–21, at pp. 11–12.
  34. Fouracre, 2000, p. 88.
  35. 35.0 35.1 Eggenberger, 1985, p. 3.
  36. 36.0 36.1 36.2 Ian Meadows, "The Arabs in Occitania", Arab and Islamic Culture and Connections, Saudi Aramco World
  37. Collins, R. 1989, p. 89
  38. Previously attributed to Isidorus Pacensis, Bishop of Beja — see, O'Callaghan, 1983, p. 189.
  39. Wolf. 2000, p. 144. "Solus Deus numerum morientium vel pereuntium recognoscat"
  40. Riche, 1993, p. 44.
  41. Collins, R. 1989, pp. 81, 90
  42. From the Anon Arab Chronicler: The Battle of Poitiers, 732.
  43. Davis, Paul K. (1999) page 105
  44. Watson, 1993.
  45. Fouracre, 2000, p. 149.
  46. Bede, 1847, p. 291.
  47. Creasy, 1851/2001, p. 163.
  48. quoted in Creasy, 1851/2001, p. viii.
  49. Fouracre, 2000, p. 96.
  50. 50.0 50.1 50.2 Santosuosso 2004, p. 126
  51. Roberts,J.M. The New History of the World
  52. White, pp. 1–38. However White denied the importance of Tours in Charles Martel's reforms, both because they began the year before the battle (White accepted October 17, 733, as the battle date) and because Claudio Sanchez-Albornoz "has shown that even twenty years after Martel's death the Spanish Muslims used cavalry only in small numbers" (p.12).
  53. The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, Chapter LII.
  54. quoted in Frank D. Gilliard, "The Senators of Sixth-Century Gaul," Speculum, Vol. 54, No. 4 (Oct., 1979), pp. 685–697
  55. 55.0 55.1 quoted in Creasy, 1851/2001, p. 158.
  56. History of the later Roman Commonwealth, vol ii. p. 317, quoted in Creasy, 1851/2001, p. 158.
  57. Cambridge Medieval History p.374.
  58. Inside the Third Reich, Albert Speer (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) 1995, pp.149-150, ISBN 978-1-8421-2735-3
  59. Lewis, 1994, p. 11.
  60. von Grunebaum, 2005, p. 66.
  62. Famous Men of The Middle Ages by John H. Haaren, LL.D. and A. B. Poland, Ph.D. Project Gutenberg Etext.
  63. The Timetables of History p. 275.
  64. Civilization of the Middle Ages p.136.
  65. The Battle of Tours (732) at the Wayback Machine (archived September 26, 2004)
  66. Kennedy, Muslim Spain and Portugal: Political History of Al-Andalus, p. 28.
  67. Davis, Paul 1999, p. 105.
  68. Leaders and Battles: Tours at the Wayback Machine (archived January 28, 2002)
  69. Hanson, Victor Davis, 2001, p. 167.
  70. Davis, Paul, 1999, p. 107.
  72. Barbero, 2004, p. 10.
  73. Mastnak, 2002, pp. 99–100.
  74. Hitti, 2002, p. 469.
  75. Cardini, 2001, p. 9.
  76. 'Editors' Note', Cowley and Parker, 2001, p. xiii.


External links
